If you’re driving along and you get lit up by a Guilford County Sheriff’s Office patrol car behind you, you better think twice in the future about making a run for it. While some of the cars presently in use by the department have seen much better days, the fleet of vehicles is about to be beefed up with a lot of brand-new pursuit cars and other autos.
On Thursday, Oct 3, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office expects to get approval from the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to purchase a total of 24 new vehicles: two 2024 Ford Transit Cargo vans, four 2025 Ford Police Interceptor Utility SUVs and eighteen 2025 Dodge Durango Pursuit AWD SUVs.
The vehicles will be purchased from Piedmont Trucks of Greensboro, Ilderton Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram of High Point and Deacon Jones Ford of Clinton.
These new wheels will “replace aging, high mileage vehicles in the Sheriff’s Office fleet.”
The Ford vans will take the place of older vans currently in use by the Transportation Division of the Court Services Bureau.
The Ford Interceptor SUVs, as well as the Dodge Pursuit Durangos will replace vehicles now being used by various divisions of the Sheriff’s Office for both administrative and law enforcement purposes.
The two Ford vans are being purchased using a State of North Carolina contract. The county gets them cheaper that way since the state buys such a large number of vehicles each year and this allows counties to benefit from the state’s economies of scale.
The vans will cost $54,734 each for a total of $109,469. A highway use tax of 3 percent will bump that total up to $112,754. The estimated upfit per Transit van will be $27,000, which will bring the the per-vehicle cost to $83,377 each.
The total – estimated – price for these vehicles is $166,754.
The four Ford Police Interceptor Utility SUVs are being purchased from Deacon Jones Ford and will total $170,435, with and estimated upfit being $27,000 each, bringing the per-vehicle cost to $69,609 each.
The total estimated price for these vehicles is $278,436.
The eighteen Dodge Pursuit Durangos – and upfitting them for law enforcement work – will come to $1,235,430.
The estimated “on road” total expenses for these 24 vehicles comes to $1,680,620.
The vendors have been approved through the county’s MWBE process. That’s something Guilford County government is highly focused on right now whenever the county buys anything or enters into any contract.
As in all things these days, the actual price tags could be more than the estimates.
The Sheriff’s Office notes, “Upfit estimates are based on projected use of vehicles at time of order; however, Sheriff’s Office may modify vehicle use assignment upon delivery based off of the needs of the organization.”
